1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus and method for building a compost pile, and more specifically to an apparatus and method for use in combination with a cotton gin to build a compost pile with cotton gin trash.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many devices have heretofore been developed for piling particulate materials such as wood chips, seeds, slag, coal, gravel, waste materials and the like in substantially conical piles. A typical such device may include a screw conveyor having an inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end with the screw conveyor swingably mounted on a support so that the material will fall from the outlet of the conveyor to form a conical pile when the conveyor is stationary, or a ring or segment of a ring with a conical vertical cross-section when the conveyor is swung about in a substantially horizontal plane on the support.
A preliminary patentability search has been conducted in class 406, subclasses 56 and 173; class 414, subclasses 132 and 133; and class 198, subclass 508.
Croon et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,749, issued Jan. 17, 1967, discloses an apparatus having a discharge conveyor mounted on a carriage that is pivotally movable about a vertical axis for discharging wood chips onto one end of an interrupted ring-shaped pile of wood chips with the center of the ring-shaped pile of wood chips located at the vertical axis, and having a removal conveyor mounted second carriage that is also pivotally movable about the vertical axis for removing wood chips from the other end of the pile of wood chips.
Klein, U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,584, issued Apr. 15, 1969, discloses a composting device that includes a vehicle having an auger that works, turns and lifts rows of matter while the vehicle is driven through the matter. The auger directs the matter toward the center thereof and thereafter lifts the matter whereupon a conveying means receives the matter from the auger and thereafter feeds the matter to a spreader which selectively guides the matter so it can be piled as it originally was prior to being worked.
Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,740, issued Apr. 15, 1969, discloses a composting conveyor movable along an elongated tank for periodically agitating organic material placed in the tank for aerobic digestion. The conveyor is inclined and operable in a gap of the material to progressively elevate the material adjacent the lower portion of the conveyor to a position above the level of the material in the tank and discharge it back into the tank.
Grayson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,518, issued Oct. 30, 1979, discloses a radial stacker adapted to dispense aggregate material to form a stack. The radial stacker includes a conveyor for dispensing the aggregate material and for moving horizontally and vertically through a plurality of dispensing positions to form the stack. One end of the conveyor is supported at a fixed pivot so that it is capable of traversing a horizontal arc of up to 340 degrees.
Holderness, U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,724, issued Jul. 22, 1980, discloses a conveyor apparatus for stacking and distributing comminuted material. The conveyor apparatus includes a fixed first support, a second support supported by the first support and capable of rotation about a vertically extending axis, an arm secured to the second support and concomitantly rotatable with the second support, a rotating mechanism for rotating the second support about the rotational axis, a first pulley secured to one end of the arm, a second pulley secured to the arm between the second support and the end of the arm opposite the first pulley, an endless conveyor belt around the first and second pulleys, support elements along the arm to support the conveyor belt, an actuating mechanism for driving the conveyor belt about the first and second pulleys, a plow supported by the arm having a plow blade above and in proximity to the conveyor belt, and a reversible winch for moving the plow along the arm.
Malmstrom et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,814, issued May 1, 1984, discloses an apparatus for depositing solid particulate material in a frustoconical pile. The apparatus includes a substantially horizontally arranged screw conveyor for receiving and transporting particulate material therealong, and means for feeding particulate material to an inlet end of the screw conveyor. The screw conveyor is designed so that the particulate material is discharged from a initial discharge point until the level of the pile of particulate material rises to the screw conveyor. The particulate material is then conveyed farther along the length of the screw conveyor, thereby leveling off the top of the pile and causing the pile to form a frustoconical shape.
Schlegel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,060, issued Dec. 16, 1986, discloses an apparatus for handling bulk material located in a pile at a storage site. The apparatus includes a stationary support column that is anchored at the lowermost end thereof. The support column supports a stacker device at the uppermost end thereof. The stacker device is mounted for rotating movement relative to the support column for stacking the material at the storage site in a substantially circular array. A material feed device is mounted over the stacker device and feeds the material thereto during the stacking operation. A reclaimer device is mounted for rotary movement relative to the support column and for reclaiming the material from the pile to transfer the material to a discharge area.
The safe, legal, and cost-efficient disposal of by-products of certain manufacturing and agricultural processes has been a long-existing problem in many industries. For example, the disposal of the by-products of cotton ginning operations has been a problem for many years and has in recent years been the subject of increasingly stringent state and federal regulations.
A typical commercial cotton gin now commonly consists of a large building having an inlet port for receiving un-ginned cotton from trucks, etc. The un-ginned cotton is subjected to a first ginning step for removing certain trash (e.g., sticks, twigs, leaves, and the like) from the cotton. This trash (commonly referred to as "gin trash" or "cotton gin trash") is currently disposed of in one of three basic methods.
In one method, the gin trash is merely blown through a pipe to an exterior location and allowed to form a pile of gin trash. However, because of the nature of the gin trash, a large amount of "dust" and the like is created as the gin trash is blown onto the pile. Such "dust" normally contains chemical pollutants from the various agricultural sprays and the like which have been applied to the cotton prior to harvesting, etc. In addition, due to the heat created when such gin trash starts to decompose in the piles, many, if not most, such piles will be subject to spontaneous combustion, and will emit pollutants due to the burning thereof and from the various agricultural chemicals that may be present in the gin trash. Such burning piles are extremely difficult to extinguish.
In a second method, the gin trash is merely blown into or otherwise loaded onto trailers which are used to haul the gin trash to an off-site disposal area. Dust and the like is also created with this method when the gin trash is blown into the trailers, etc., and also when the filled trailers are moved to the off-site disposal area, and the problem of spontaneous combustion is merely moved to an off-site disposal area. Further, this method adds transportation costs, etc., to the disposal costs.
In a third method, the gin trash is blown from the gin to an incinerator for burning. This method also creates dust and the like when the gin trash is blown into the incinerator, and adds incineration costs, to the disposal costs. Further, the burning of the gin trash creates additional pollution and regulatory problems.
None of the above identified patents or prior art discloses or suggests the present invention. More specifically, none of the above identified patents or prior art discloses or suggests a compost pile building apparatus or method including conveyor means for conveying compostable material along a path above a support surface and for dispensing the compostable material onto a porous portion of the support surface; and means for wetting the compostable material as the compostable material is deposited into the inlet of the conveyor means.